The Gamma

The man and woman had wandered for days, hungry and tired. They stumbled upon a cave formation in the barren landscape, which was dark and damp. As they entered, heavy storms began to rage. The man and woman lay inside, waiting for the storms to pass. It seemed like days they waited, sharp heavy rain pouring down. They grew tired, hungry, and desperate. A mist enveloped the land and they could not see through. They tried to leave, but only managed to become lost and could only find their way back to the cave structure. The ground had become muddy and thick, to an extent where stepping in it left them knee-deep in the mixture. They turned to the cavern, looking for a source of food in their dwelling. Deeper inside, they found mud and foliage inside. The man lifted the foliage to find grubs feeding on it.

So they ate the grubs in the earth; the large caterpillars, roaches, and worms they found in the rocks; and the slugs in the plants. They collected them in their hands and ate them. The taste was appalling and nearly intolerable having been so adjusted to the fruit and vegetables of the garden. They chewed on the bugs, and the grub bodies squirted liquid inside their mouths. The experience was terrible, but one they had to undergo to survive. The rubbery skin of the slugs and caterpillars and the crunchy shells of roaches were difficult to chew. The woman found it easier to simply spit the skins and shells out. Inside the bodies of the grubs, they found a softer, chewier center.

Over time they developed hair on their bodies. She took to using the foliage inside to cover her breasts, while he simply used coverings for his genitalia. She began to feel an urge to remove the hair, so she ground two stones against each other until they were sharp. She began to scissor the hair off her legs and arms, difficult as it was. She had the two stones against one arm and slid them across her forearm, slicing hair slowly until the stones slipped. She sliced her arm and cried in pain. Blood dripped from her arm. The man clasped his hands around her arm while her blood seeped through his knuckles. Eventually it stopped, and she ran to rinse it in the spring. She bent over to put her head under for water. He licked his hands clean of the blood. It was bitter, but had a different taste than the water he had previously drank.

As he watched her submerge her face, he began to feel a physical urge. He approached her, gripped her shoulders, and pulled her into himself. She resisted at first, but pulled herself up, and the two fell over onto the moss and foliage. Outside, the sound of rain had subsided. When they were finished, they left the cave, approaching a pasture outside. It was a grassy plain with plateaus past them, fields of greenery and ferns. They left their home in the cave behind and wandered forward. As they traveled the plains, they found small forests with the vines that produced a few of the fruits and vegetables they had indulged themselves in previously.

They were ashamed, filled with regret for their transgressions in the garden. Their pursuit for the truth exposed them to the harshness of reality. However, they would've rather had lived in the fantasy of the garden, blinded to what surrounded them. Still, they had experienced pleasure for the very first time. They took part in eating the vegetables, and they bathed in a small river. They splashed water to wash the dirt off, soaking in the sun, which was growing ever brighter.

The man turned to a growling noise and saw a new creature. It was a large beast covered in tan fur. It had large teeth protruding over its jaw, narrow eyes, and a large nose. The creature stood on four legs, unlike themselves or the serpent before them. It patted the ground. The man reached out towards it, and with one arm it clawed his hand in response. He wrenched back and realized it had severed two of his fingers. They began to bleed profusely. He glanced back over at the creature, and it growled. He and the woman ran out of the water, sprinting away from this hostile creature. It pursued them, as the woman discovered when she looked back. It growled, mere feet away from her, before pouncing and grasping her leg. It dug its talons into her shin, pulling her back and biting into her thigh.

The man grabbed a stone and threw it at the creature's face. It let go of her with both its jaws and arms. Instead, it turned its attention towards him. He picked up a sharper stone, and lifted it in the air. When the animal pounced, he swung it down into the creature's head, stabbing in multiple times. As it fell to the ground, convulsing and bleeding, He stabbed into its body swiftly and violently. The woman watched while clenching her leg in pain as the man stabbed the already dead animal. He stood over the fallen predator, victorious.

He began to tear the animal's skin apart and thick flesh inside it, his woman watching. He came to her, lifted her to the animal, and took her to it. She too, reached inside the animal and ate the flesh. He turned towards the stone while his woman ate. He rubbed two of the stones together, sharpening them and edging them. He would make weapons to defend himself against future threats. He decided to attach the sharpened stone to a stick so he could keep his distance. He affixed it to the end of the stick with vines. He took the other stone, sharpened and edged, and used it to remove the skin of the animal. He tore the skin off, and carried both it and the woman to the river to wash.

Once her wound was clean, he tore a piece of the fur and wrapped it around the stumps where his smaller fingers on his left hand used to be. He bandaged it with small vines, just as he did the spear. He pulled off whatever meat was left of the animal and wrapped a strip of the skin around her wound. He used the remainder to keep her warm as it got colder. They wandered out of the forest, and she began to complain of stomach pain ever since they were in the cave. At that moment, he noticed her stomach was getting larger.